How should I read the Gospel?
Love stems from knowledge, from a personal, trusting relationship. Thus, we need to be familiar with Jesus' life. By meditating on the Gospel, we learn to fall in love with him; we see that Jesus is human and has a heart like ours. When reading the Gospel, we need to listen closely to Jesus' every word, dwell on each gesture, and allow it to move our hearts. “I would like you to close your earthly eyes and contemplate Christ's life as in a film, and take part in his life with the Apostles and the holy women, even closer to Jesus than St John. If not, it's not good enough."
Our zeal to know Christ better each day should spring from our love for him.
Christian life consists of falling in love with Christ and becoming identified with him. Jesus has lived among us and does so still. We contemplate each step of his earthly life: his birth in Bethlehem, his hidden life, his preaching throughout Palestine, his healing of the sick in body and soul, his proof of love on the Cross, his Resurrection, and glorious Ascension into heaven. We see him with the Apostles, how he chooses them and instructs them in the mysteries of God's kingdom.
We need to enter deeply into the Gospel. The Lord's words are few, but full of meaning; their worth is measured not by their number but by their depth; nor are they to be taken lightly, but pondered on thoroughly. How often we gain fresh insight while contemplating a Gospel passage we have already considered many times! Our reading of the Gospel should be marked by an eagerness to learn and to improve, and so influence our whole day. Sometimes a single word or gesture of our Lord helps us to have a greater presence of God.
Thus, knowing Jesus better makes it easier to love him.
To meditate on the Gospel means to look attentively at Jesus in eagerness to imitate him. We seek to conform our life to his, to make his words and feelings our own, with the help of grace. “I advised you to read the New Testament and to enter into each scene and take part in it, as one more of the characters. The minutes you spend in this way each day enable you to ‘incarnate’ the Gospel, reflect it in your life, and help others to reflect it."
We are led to become other Christs, ipse Christus - Christ himself. But we need to use all our faculties in the struggle to attain this identification. As St John Chrysostom says, “Christ has given you the power to be like him according to your strength. Don't be frightened to hear this. What should frighten you is not to be like him."
We must love what Christ loves and reject what he rejects, reproducing his life in our own.
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